Gandhinagar. The problems of alleged social activist Teesta Setalvad, arrested recently, seem to be increasing. After the Gujarat riots, he is now accused of trying to destabilize the government of Narendra Modi, who was then CM there. This allegation was made by the Gujarat government’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Friday. The SIT has claimed in an affidavit in the court that there was a conspiracy to destabilize the then Modi government in the state after the train burning in Godhra in 2002. Teesta Setalvad also played her role in this conspiracy by taking a hefty amount. According to the SIT, Setalvad had received a lot of money from Ahmed Patel, a senior Congress leader. Politics is expected to heat up after this allegation of the SIT. However, state Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said the party would say something only after knowing the full facts about it.
According to the Hindi newspaper ‘Dainik Hindustan’, the SIT said in the affidavit filed in the court that Teesta Setalvad had hatched a big conspiracy with political motives. In the affidavit, the SIT mentioned two witnesses. He said that the conspiracy was hatched at the behest of Ahmed Patel, then a Rajya Sabha MP and then advisor to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. As part of this conspiracy, Ahmed Patel met Teesta a few days after the Godhra train incident to prepare to topple the Modi government and got her Rs 5 lakh in the hands of a witness. Two days later, Ahmed Patel and Setalvad met again at the Government Circuit House in Shahibagh and then the witness gave a statement to the SIT to give another Rs 25 lakh at Patel’s behest.
Narendra Modi was the CM in the state at the time of Gujarat riots. Congress was in opposition then. Rejecting Zakia Jafri’s plea in this case, the Supreme Court had remarked on Teesta and some others for forcibly dragging the matter. After which the Gujarat Police arrested Teesta Setalvad, former DGP of Gujarat RB Sreekumar and former police officer Sanjeev Bhatt. After this, the Gujarat government had formed an SIT to investigate the whole matter. Now the SIT has made serious allegations against Teesta as well as the Congress.